The Representation of Fallen Women in Oliver Twist and David Copperfield
Shiho Hashimoto
Introduction
In the 1840s and 1850s, there was a considerable amount of literary works which
concerned prostitution and other sexual transgressions and, where women who had lost
their virtue were severely condemned as fallen women. Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
challenged the idea that fallen women were the source of disease, moral pollution and
degradation when they lost their chastity. The three female characters, Nancy in Oliver
Twist (1837-9) and Little Emily and Martha in David Copperfield (1849-50), re-evaluate
the popular misconceptions about fallen women. These three characters are described as
both victims and subjects of exploitation and betrayal in Dickens’ novels. Dickens
criticises the cruelty of society, people, and social value towards fallen women. He
illustrates the causes of downfalls of fallen women and the cures for the disgraceful
condition. It is undeniable that Dickens sees the goodness in fallen women and
questions the prevailing image of corruption. The aim of this essay is to consider the
corrupting situation and the causes and cures for the ruin of fallen women, Nancy, Little
Emily and Martha in Oliver Twist and David Copperfield.
The Murder of Nancy in Oliver Twist
In the preface to Oliver Twist, Dickens writes: “It is useless to discuss whether the
conduct and character of the girl seems natural or unnatural, probable or improbable,
right or wrong. IT IS TRUE” (36). Nancy has particular significance, because she
represents Dickens’s first concerns about fallen women. Though there is no allusion that
Nancy’s occupation is a prostitute except in the preface, her job can be easily forecasted
from her manner, appearance and friendship. Nancy is parentless and works on the
streets since childhood. She dresses in a “red gown, green boots, and yellow
curl-papers” (138), and has the companion of thieves. Her bond with a cruel thief, Fagin,
and her lover, Sikes, is evidence of her malicious and degenerated life in the London
underworld. Nancy’s rough and inappropriate manner and language indicate that she is
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uneducated and ignorant. At the same time, Dickens reveals that Nancy has a sense of
guilt and shame as an “infamous creature” (362). These words of Nancy sigh that Nancy
was not innately depraved. It is suggested that there are other reasons for her disgraceful
situation.
Through the novel, Dickens portrays Nancy as possessing a moral conscience,
kindness, fears and courage. Nancy’s emotional complexity is her inner conflict
between good and evil. It is first demonstrated through her meeting with a little orphan
boy, Oliver Twist, and then through her decision to save him from kidnapping by her
thief companions, Fagin and Sikes. At first, Nancy agrees to capture Oliver, who runs
away from Sikes and Fagin to a benevolent gentleman, Mr. Brownlow, without too
much reluctance. However, after they recapture Oliver, Nancy’s trembling hand and
deadly white face, when she talks with Sikes, reveal Nancy’s fear of Sikes and
compassion for Oliver. When Fagin tries to hit Oliver’s shoulders with the club, Nancy
arouses her anger to protect the child, in contrast with the thieves’ indifference to the
life of Oliver and their own cruelty. As Slater notes, Nancy’s inner conflict and various
emotional mood are dramatised by her sudden pity for Oliver and outbursts against
Fagin (221). Nancy’s reluctance to recapture Oliver and consideration towards Oliver
express her affection and warmth as well as moral conscience.
Furthermore, Dickens successfully breaks the depraved image of the typical fallen
women through his descriptions of Nancy’s further treatment of Oliver. Nancy’s rescue
of Oliver from Fagin’s violence leads Oliver to return to a normal life, and Oliver starts
feeling an attachment to Nancy. There is a trust between them. The orphan Oliver can
find a sense of family in his pretend sister, Nancy (Gold, 1972:56). Later, Nancy takes
the risk of facing the anger of her accomplices and saves Oliver, who again runs away
from the thieves, from Fagin and Sikes. Dickens writes Nancy’s goodness in saving
Oliver without any regard for her own safety: “something of the woman’s original
nature left in her still” (360). In chapter 40, in order to keep Oliver under the protection,
Nancy visits the rich family area where Rose Maylie, who protects Oliver. The meeting
of Rose and Nancy represents that two girls hold the same purity and goodness. When
Nancy and Rose face each other, it is obvious that these two young girls are very
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different. Rose is the one being rescued fortunately from illegitimate birth and loved by
Mrs. Maylie and Mrs. Maylie’s nephew, Harry. Rose’s purity, innocence, and good
nature make her almost angelic. On the other hand, Nancy lives in a brutalised world
and has never known love from anybody in her childhood. Whilst their worlds are
opposites, their basic shared goodness makes the two become one; Nancy rescues
Oliver acting as an elder sister, and Rose, as his guardian, protects him and is later
identified as his real aunt (Gold, 1972: 56). These two girls live in a separate condition,
between the world of richness and happiness and the world of poverty, misery and
cruelty. Yet they fundamentally have the same good nature. Thus, Nancy’s tenderness
for Oliver and the fact that she rescued him from Sikes’ inhuman treatment succeed in
emphasising her essential purity and goodness.
The descriptions of Nancy in the novel are inspired by Dickens’ efforts to reclaim
prostitutes to a normal life by the foundation of Urania Cottage, which is the home for
homeless women, with the wealthy philanthropist, Miss Angela Burdett-Coutts. Despite
Nancy’s poor and degraded life, Dickens presents signs that Nancy can be rescued and
forgiven. In the scene of Nancy’s visiting Rose, Nancy condemns herself and feels
ashamed as an “infamous creature” (362). But these considerations about her own
disgrace and corruption in front of Rose show Nancy’s honest attitude and make her a
virtuous and noble character (Watt, 1984:16). In particular, the scene of Nancy’s death
includes the ritualistic meanings of purifying herself. Nancy’s brutal murder by her own
lover, Sikes, represents her suffering. She dies on her knees, drawing from her bosom
Rose’s white handkerchief which Nancy is given at their last meeting and holds the
handkerchief up high, saying “one prayer for mercy to her maker”(423). As Watt refers,
Rose’s white handkerchief describes the ritual’s meaning (1984:17). Rose’s pity,
kindness and forgiving spirit and purity are passed to Nancy through the white
handkerchief, which is the symbol of redemption. In Nancy’s death scene, there is
Nancy’s transformation from the prostitute into the pure girl. Dickens presents the
possibility of regeneration of fallen women and the salvation of them through Nancy’s
death.
But, Nancy cannot become another Rose. Nancy is forgiven through her own
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death, but her full recovery to a respectable life is not fulfilled. Nancy hates her life
which she has spent. It is not Nancy’s choice to have the miserable life. Dickens
describes the corruption of making Nancy be at the hands of Fagin and Sikes as a cause
of her downfall. Nancy’s parentless background and living with criminals also
determined her ruin. It is obvious that Nancy failed to avoid or run away from the cruel
service and life. Nancy says this when she meets Rose:
“‘Thank Heaven upon your knees, dear lady,’ cried the girl, ‘that you and
friends to care for and keep you in childhood, and that you were never in the
midst of cold and hunger, and riot and drunkenness, and — and something
worse than all — as I have been from my cradle. I may use the word, for the
ally and the gutter were mine, as they will be my deathbed’” (362).
Nancy’s words indicate that she feels the unbreakable bond with the underworld. When
Mr. Brownlow and Rose offered to help Nancy to find a new life, Nancy declined their
offer. When Rose said it was not too late to turn Nancy from a life of sin and sorrow,
Nancy showed her love for Sikes and said “I cannot leave him now! I could not be his
death” (364). Her attachment to Sikes explains that she feels these unbreakable bonds
with criminals and a sinful life is the punishment for her sins (Basch,1974: 212). Nancy
continues:
“‘I only know that it is so, and not with me alone, but with hundreds of
others as bad and wretched as myself. I must go back. Whether it is God’s
wrath for the wrong I have done, I do not know; but I am drawn back to him
through every suffering and ill-usage; and I should be, I believe, if I knew
that I was to die by his hand at last’” (365).
Though Nancy is not a true fallen woman, she cannot be relieved from the corrupting
world. It seems that the uncontrollable fate abandons Nancy in the criminal world and
keeps Nancy into the pitiless environment.
It is apparent that the unavoidable fate is on Nancy’s life when we compare Rose’s
birth with Nancy’s. There is also illegitimacy and unhappiness in Rose’s life. Rose is a
sister who has a different mother from Oliver’s mother, Agnes Fleming, and their father
died of a broken heart and left Rose and Agnes in his sister. Later Agnes gave a birth to
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Oliver as the unmarried mother and died alone in her youth. In contrast, Rose was
fortunately saved by Mrs. Maylie after she was brought up by the poor cottagers.
Despite Rose’s illegitimate birth, as Reed points out, Rose is clearly marked virtuous
predominance and described as the moral excellence in the novel (1995:78).
Considering Rose’s fortunes, I believe that Nancy’s misfortune can be explained not
only from the loss of parents or being treated as a thief’s instrument. But, the
uncontrollable fate dominates Nancy’s life and chains her to the ruin. Nancy is a victim
of circumstance. In the hapless fate of Nancy, there are Dickens’ intentions that the
readers should be aware of the social and moral degeneration and need to examine to
see how badness rises, survives and relates with them.
I can find the unfortunate fate on the innocent girl, Nancy. However, there is little
about the cure of Nancy’s condition in the novel. I believe that Nancy’s death represents
the spiritual salvation of fallen women which is achieved by their suffering and death.
However, the recovery to a normal and respectable life cannot be fulfilled in Nancy. As
Watt points out, it is necessary to see a reformed prostitute dying a pure woman because
Dickens effectively challenges the prejudice inherent in “once a harlot, always a harlot”
(1984:17). In fact, Dickens’ attitude to Nancy links to his work in the regeneration of
prostitutes with Miss Coutts. But, Oliver Twist does not depict a complete restoration of
the fallen woman to a normal life.
The Fall and Rescue of Little Emily and Martha in David Copperfield
In comparison with Nancy in Oliver Twist, I can find several different aspects of
the presentation of the fallen women, Little Emily and Martha, in David Copperfield. As
for Emily, she is first introduced as an orphan who is later brought up as a daughter of a
fisherman by Mr. Peggotty and Mrs. Gummidge in a little cabin in Yarmouth. Ham, who
is another orphan, is Emily’s future fiancé. The family forms a warm and peaceful home
though they are poor. As David’s impression on Emily at their first meeting illustrates,
Emily is presented as a young, honest, innocent, pure, and attractive girl. She comes
across to the readers almost as an angel.
David’s admiration continues when he meets Emily, who has grown up, though he
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notices Emily’s changes. Emily has grown to be a woman of sexual attractiveness,
maintaining her innocence and purity. Whilst Emily’s pretty figure, kindness and love
for her family and other people are admired through David’s words, Emily’s coquettish
behaviour to “tease” and “torment” (138) David and Ham signify her sexual fascination.
The opposite sides of nature, purity and sexuality, are coexisted in Emily, which predicts
us the possibility of her downfall.
The first meeting of Emily and Steerforth, who is the upper class son, is the
beginning of her fall. During Steerforth’s story of shipwreck, his nobility, charm and
talented nature fascinate Emily. Steerforth and Emily fall in love and elope together. Yet
finally Emily is discarded by him. Though the reasons for Emily’s fall and the
destruction of her life are complex and include various elements, one of the pitfalls of
her ruin is her ignorance and innocence. Although Emily is an orphan, she is neither
deprived nor in unhappy and miserable conditions. She is protected by her uncle, Mr.
Peggotty, and does not know the severity of society. Basch points out that Emily’s
happy background with Mr. Peggotty and Ham constructs the mini-paradise of order
and propriety (1974:221). Thus, it seems to me that Emily’s small and peaceful world,
full of love and protection from her family, makes her ignorant and innocent to society
and to male behaviour.
Another reason for the destruction of Emily’s life is her sexual attractiveness,
passion and ambition. As David finds Emily’s wild behaviour and frivolity when he
meets grown-up Emily, Emily’s sexual charm explains that she easily becomes the
target of male sexuality. The danger of female sexuality is described through Emily as
well as through Nancy who works as a prostitute. Furthermore, Emily’s elopement with
Steerforth signifies her passion and desire for better life. Reynolds and Humble point
out “Emily’s destructive potential is released through the sexuality she embraces”
(1993:19). Emily’s meeting with young Steerforth helps to expose her passion and
eagerness for social situation. In particular, Emily’s dissatisfaction with her own status
strongly relates to her destructive power. The following lines between David and Emily
address Emily’s desire for better conditions, and this desires for status hints at the
elopement with Steerforth:
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“‘You would like to be a lady?’ I said. Emily looked at me, and laughed and
nodded ‘yes.’ ‘ I should like it very much. We would all be gentlefolks
together, then. Me, and uncle, and Ham, and Mrs. Gummidge. We wouldn’t
mind then, when there come stormy weather. — Not for our own sakes, I
mean. We would for the poor fishermen’s, to be sure, and we’d help ‘em with
money when they come to any hurt’” (42).
As Basch mentions, it is difficult to point out the real reasons of Emily’s fleeing;
whether she really loves Steerforth or whether she was simply moved by a desire for
social rank when she elopes with him (1974:222). However, Emily later addresses in a
letter to her family that she will never “come back, unless he (Steerforth) brings me
back a lady” (419); and it is clear that Emily wants to become a wife of high social rank.
Dickens describes her vanity for better conditions, and her elopement with Steerforth is
influenced by her desire to become a lady. However, Emily’s yearning results in the ruin
of her life and her family. The elopement of Emily and Steerforth leads to the seduction
and destruction of the lower class female by the upper class male. Additionally, the
elopement which relates to love, passion and ambition disrupts the class system and
moral code in the Victorian age, which invites the further destruction to Emily. Dickens
presents the danger of female passion and vanity through describing the ruin of Emily.
The end of the elopement is the damage, dishonour and severe attacks on Emily
and her family. In particular, the scorn and hatred from Mrs. Steerforth and Miss. Rosa
Dartle show the stereotyped pitiless attitude of people towards fallen women. Mrs.
Steerforth and Rosa criticise Emily’s humble connections and desire to punish her,
because Emily breaks the rule of morality and class difference and brings discord
between mother and son. Mrs. Steerforth says: “What compensation can you make to
me for opening such a bit between me and my son? What is your love to mine? What is
your separation to ours” (435)? Steerforth is not entirely blamed for his behaviour in
this scene. Standards of behaviour differ from class to class, despite the existence of an
apparent moral consensus. Mrs. Steerforth shows forgiveness to her son if he gets rid of
Emily, comes back and asks Mrs. Steerforth forgiveness as follows.
“‘Let him put away his whim now, and he is welcome back. Let him not put
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her away now, and he never shall come near me, living or dying, while I can
raise my hand to make a sigh against it, unless, being rid of her for ever, he
comes humbly to me and begs for my forgiveness. This is my right. This is
the acknowledgement I will have’”(435).
Mrs. Steerfoth expresses the importance of preservation of honour and pride for the
family name rather than of love for her son in this scene. She does not forgive her son’s
disdainful behaviour to the family if he continues his relations with Emily. Collins
points out that the forgiveness which Mrs. Steerforth gives to her son is an
acknowledgement that the sinner has been obedient to her authority (1964:193). Mrs.
Steerforth’s authoritarian comments indicate that she is a heartless mother. At the same
time, Mrs. Steerforth justifies the superiority of her own son to Emily and thinks Emily
to be guilty of sexual imprudence as a fallen woman. It is the antagonism between the
classes; Mrs. Steerforth voices the inequable Victorian social and moral code. This
unequal moral and social rule increases the possibility of fall of a lot of women and
sends them into the further despair and suffering.
The physical and psychological agony is characteristics of fallen women. Basch
refers there are stereotyped feelings of the sinner condemned to the torments of hell in
Emily’s letter to her family: her grief, sense of worthlessness, remorse and pain
(1974:224). As a result of Mrs. Steerforth’s refusal to marry Emily and Steerforth,
Emily was driven into the miserable journey from Italy to London and likely to become
a prostitute after Steerforth left her. Mrs. Steerforth’s decision prevents Emily from
returning to an ordinary social life. Emily was put into the desperate despair and a sense
of guilt and worthlessness in the humiliation and reproach.
The words and gestures of Martha, who is Emily’s friend and a prostitute and who
kindly saves Emily, at Mr. Peggotty’s house clearly accounts for the difficulty of living
in the ordinary society once they lose their chastity. When Martha appears to David and
Steerforth, Steerforth finds a “black shadow” to be following Martha and says, “a
beggar would be no novelty” (305). Martha’s decision to leave for London explains that
she feels ashamed at living in the town, hides herself and lives quietly: “If you’ll help
me away. I never can do worse than I have done here. I may do better…. Take me out of
these streets, where the whole town knows me from a child” (317)! Furthermore Martha,
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who wanders on the bank of the Thames, clearly pictures us of her pain, sense of sin and
desire for death. There is no excuse for the corruption of fallen women and fallen
women never defend themselves. Dickens portrays that the typical psychological and
physical agony of fallen women which is despair, grief and guilty through the afflictions
of Martha and Emily. Their agony indicates Dickens’ hope for female purity and virtue
as well as his intention to present to the readers the social problems of prostitutes as a
philanthropist.
What makes the difference between Nancy in Oliver Twist and Emily and Martha
in David Copperfield can be found in the end of fallen women. What Emily’s family
shows to her is the forgiveness which is in contrast with what Steerforth’s family
presents to him. When the seduction takes place, Mr. Peggotty’s attitude towards Emily
is against the marriage across the class attitude. Mr. Peggotty asks for permission of the
marriage between Emily and Steerforth. He believes that this will save Emily from total
disgrace. Mr. Peggotty implores that the marriage should be allowed. Furthermore, after
Emily’s disappearance from Italy, Mr. Peggotty decides to take a journey in order to
search for Emily and save her. He says:
“ I’m a going to seek her, fur and wide. If she should come home while I’m
away, — but ah, that ain’t like to be! — or if I should bring her back, my
meaning is, that she and me shall live and die where no one can’t reproach
her. If any hurt should come to me, remember that the last words I left for her
was, ‘My unchanged love is with my darling child, and I forgive her’”(438)!
Mr. Peggotty’s decision to find Emily shows his deep love for her, and this love saves
Emily from total disgraceful abandonment. Because of Mr. Peggotty’s efforts, he finds
Emily in London, rescued and given shelter by Martha. Despite severe reproach and
disdain, Mr. Peggotty makes efforts to return Emily and Martha to normal life and
decides to immigrate to Australia together for a new live. Later, Emily lives in a small
village and devotes herself to work. She prays and repents. Martha even gets married in
Australia. There is no death like Nancy’s in the end for Emily and Martha in David
Copperfield. There is a person like Mr. Peggotty who rescues fallen women with love
and looks for a chance to lead them to hopeful life. Dickens achieves a fuller treatment
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of the problem of fallen women by allowing Emily and Martha to live at the end.
Emily’s life of redemption and new life, and Martha’s happy marriage, and their return
to a normal life in Australia are presented as the restoration of the fallen women.
Although immigration to Australia means their re-absorption into a new society, I
believe that it is not satisfying end as the full return to society for fallen women from
the view point of today. The life in Australia is the restart of life for Emily and Martha.
It implies that it is impossible for Emily and Martha and their family to get back to the
original and normal conditions in England and recover their honour completely. The end
of fallen women in the novels gives the impression that Dickens found it difficult to
give fallen women a completely normal life in England with respect and to do justice to
social behaviour.
On the other hand, Dickens’ correspondence with Miss Coutts around 1846 in
support of her plan to establish a home for fallen women and his contributions to run the
house demonstrate Dickens’s efforts to do many things for those women (Collins,
1964:95-6). As Dickens states in his letter to Miss Coutts in 1850: “It is difficult to
approach, in pages that are intended for readers of all classes and all ages of life; but I
have not the least misgiving about being able to bring people gently to its
consideration” (28)1. The end of Emily and Martha is definitely influenced by Dickens’
further efforts to rescue fallen women and to enable them to live in society, compared
with the death of Nancy. Dickens and Miss Coutts finally open “Home for Homeless
Women”, Urania Cottage in 1847, which was established for fallen women. For four
years’ talks about Urania Cottage, Dickens and Miss Coutts sent letters to each other
many times. Dickens expresses the hope in 1850 that marriage may be one of the ways
of rescuing women in one of his letters:
“I am not quite sure that perfect penitence in these women — in the best of them I
mean — would lead them in all cases not to Marry; for I can certainly (I think)
descry a kind of active repentance in their being faithful wives and the mothers of
virtuous children;..” (27)2.
Dickens’ co-establishment of Urania Cottage with Miss Coutts and his interests in the
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conditions of fallen women are reflected in his novels, Oliver Twist and David
Copperfield. In particular, the establishment of Urania Cottage, which was to bring
about the redemption of fallen women by their marriages, accounts for a change from
the death of Nancy to the transportation of Emily and Martha to Australia in Dickens’
novels. Dickens may have found that marriage was more realistic way of recovery
which enables fallen women to live in ordinal society.
Conclusion
Dickens’s fallen women in Oliver Twist and David Copperfield are judged by the
loss of their purity, but are the victims of society and men. There is goodness in the
three girls, Nancy, Emily and Martha. Even if they are seduced or become prostitutes,
they are depicted as characters possessing kindness, modesty and purity. Dickens’
challenges in the novels are the change of the image of fallen women and to reveal
reasons why three female characters are ruined by describing their situation in detail.
Dickens criticises that what the Victorian society had is the big reason for the downfall
of women: the cruelty of people in the underworld, the inequitable moral code towards
women and severe class differences.
Dickens’ concern is extended not only about accusing the condition where fallen
women were put, but about how women should be restored to decent conditions in
society through family and social support. Dickens realised that fallen women who want
to make a new start could not get the chance to do so. Nancy’s death exemplifies the
difficulty in going back to normal life. However, the immigration into Australia of
Emily and Martha with Mr. Peggotty means Dickens’ hope for fallen women to begin
new life with help. Dickens discovers a more positive treatment for girls who broke the
moral code through his activities as a philanthropist and demonstrates the possibility of
recovery of fallen women to the life in his novels.
1
2
The Letters of Charles Dickens 1850-1852, 4 February 1850.
The Letters of Charles Dickens 1850-1852, 4 February 1850.
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Relative Creatures: Victorian Women in Society and the Novel, 1837-67.
Trans. Anthony Rudolf. London: Allen Lane, 1974.
Collins, P. Dickens and Crime. London: Macmillan, 1964.
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The Letters of Charles Dickens 1850-1852. Ed. Graham Storey, Kathleen Tillotson,
and Nina Burgis. Vol. 6. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988.
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David Copperfield. London: Penguin Books, 1996.
Gold, J.
Charles Dickens: Radical Moralist. London: Oxford University Press, 1972.
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Reynolds, K. and N. Humble.
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出典：
『言語・文学研究論集』第 6 号（白百合女子大学言語・文学研究センター、2005 年）
pp. 27-35．
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